BRUNSWICK, ME (February 12, 2023) – With a dominant four-day performance at the 2023 NESCAC Championships, the Tufts University women's swimming & diving team won their second straight conference title on Sunday at Bowdoin College.
Head coach
Adam Hoyt's Jumbos accumulated 1984.5 team points at the championship meet, finishing 370 in front of second-place Williams College (1614.5). When Tufts won its first-ever NESCAC title last year, their margin of victory over the Ephs was 51.5 points. Tufts' 1984.5 score this season is the most points scored by any team at a NESCAC meet since 2016. The Jumbos led the meet throughout the competition.
Tufts won 10 conference titles at the meet since Thursday, seven individual and three relay. They also broke a championship meet record and nine school records.
First-year
Madeleine Dunn started Sunday's action by winning the 1650 freestyle in a school-record time of 16:51.90. The win gave Dunn a sweep of the distance freestyle events (500, 1000, 1650) at NESCAC's, with records in all three. Tufts had four in the top seven for the 1650, with third-place
Sahar Mumtaz (17:13.04) and fifth-place
Cierra McCarty (17:18.61) joining Dunn in posting NCAA 'B' marks.
Allison Cremer was also seventh in the race with a 17:24.18 time.
Even in events they did not win tonight, the Jumbos had great depth of scoring. For the 200 backstroke the team had three swimmers finish in the top five. First-year
Maddie Hagberg led the Jumbos in third overall with a 2:03.16 time that was an NCAA 'B' cut.
Gaurika Singh swam fourth (2:04.36) and
Elise Fong was fifth (2:04.67).
Tory Atkinson also added 13th-place points with her 2:06.63 finish.
Lily Klinginsmith then earned her second victory of the meet and swam a record for the sixth time with her 49.92 to win the 100 freestyle.
Claire Brennan was second with a 50.53 time, as both of the Jumbos' top two earned NCAA 'B' cuts. The 'Bos had
Jillian Cudney in sixth as well with a finish of 51.72 seonds.
Isa Chambers in 11th (52.52) rounded out yet another strong freestyle event for Tufts, who won all five individual freestyle races (50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 and 1650) this week.
Another strong first-year effort during the week came from
Quinci Wheeler, who led the Jumbos with a fifth overall in the 200 breaststroke (2:21.79) tonight.
Katelin Ulmer was behind her in sixth (2:22.19) and
Abby Miller had an 11th-place touch of 2:25.10.
As the meet neared the end, Tufts flexed its depth in the 200 butterfly where they had six swimmers score points.
Lara Wujciak led with a 2:03.50 that was second, and
Katelin Isakoff took third In 2:03.73 (both were NCAA 'B' marks).
Chloe Deveney (2:05.46) in sixth and
Esme Blackstock in eighth (2:07.99) were also in the finals for Tufts.
Sora Sohn added a 2:07.76 for 13th and
Jade Foltenyi was 24th at 2:12.75.
Tufts then capped the championship win by taking the 400 freestyle relay, giving them a sweep of the freestyle relays (200, 400, 800) as well. The foursome of
Elle Morse, Isakoff, Ulmer and Klinginsmith timed 3:22.68 for the win and a Bowdoin pool record. Tufts also had Wheeler, Chambers, Deveney and Cudney in 12th place (3:27.30), also a NCAA 'B' mark.
The Jumbos won three conference awards at the conclusion of the meet. The NESCAC Rookie of the Year was Dunn, the NESCAC Career High Point Swimmer Award went to Brennan and the NESCAC Career High Point Diver Award was earned by Tufts'
Sydney Ho.
Tufts stockpiled dozens of NCAA qualifying marks at the NESCAC meet and will hear soon who has qualified for the NCAA Championships coming up March 15-18 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
In the meantime, they have the February Invitational at Wesleyan next Sunday and the NCAA Diving Regional at NYU on February 24-25.
See Full Results of the 2023 NESCAC Women's Swimming & Diving Championship
HERE.
--JUMBOS--
